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Paxton Lynch is an NFL professional football player for the Denver Broncos. He played Division I football at the University of Memphis before being drafted in the 1st Round of the NFL Draft in 2015. Locker Room Talk sat down with Paxton Lynch and asked him to give advice to current high school student-athletes about the recruiting process based on his experiences in high school and college.

Locker Room Talk sat down with Paxton Lynch and asked him to give advice to current high school student-athletes about the recruiting process based on his experiences in high school and college.

Q) When did you realize that you wanted to play in college, and how did you know that you were good enough to make it?
A) I always felt like I was good enough to play in college but I knew for sure after I won MVP in the central Florida All Star Game.

Q) How would you describe how the recruiting process was for you? What was the most challenging part?
A) The recruiting process was difficult because I went to such a small high school that there weren’t many college coaches that looked at me. Coaches also didn’t feel like the competition I was playing against was good enough because of how small the schools were.

Q) Were you parents involved in your recruiting process, and if so, to what extent?
A) Not really, but they did take me to multiple camps as well as a college Junior Day.

Q) How many coaches/schools were you in contact with before you committed?
A) I can’t remember the exact number of schools that I was in contact with but I only received one offer from Memphis, then I got another offer from UCF on signing day.

Q) When did you realize that you found the school that you wanted to commit to, and why did you choose that school?
A) When I committed to Memphis they were my only offer so I wasn’t going to pass up an opportunity to play Division I football.

Q) Is there anything that you didn’t know then that you wish you did that would have helped you?
A) Yes, I figured out that if you were upfront and honest about the other offers you were getting from colleges, it actually encouraged coaches to want to offer you because if they wanted you bad enough they would be worried that another school was going to get you.

Q) What was the most challenging thing about being a Division I student-athlete? The most rewarding?
A) The hardest thing I dealt with as a Division I athlete was having to balance school and athletics. The most rewarding thing was being given the opportunity to earn my degree and have everything paid for, as well as play at the professional level.

Q) Being a graduated Division I student-athlete, what advice would you give any high school athlete going through the recruiting process right now?
A) I would just tell them to work hard and get their name out there as much as they can, and take time to enjoy the process because they only get to go through it once.

Q) What was the funniest or most memorable thing to happen to you on the field while in college?
A) The most memorable thing to happen to me on the field in college was either winning a conference championship or beating Ole Miss.